By Scott Gilfoid: Joe Calzaghe opted to retire recently rather than stick around and take his chances and risk his unbeaten 46-0 record against the talented trio of Andre Dirrell, Andre Ward and Jermain Taylor, not to mention some good serviceable other fighters in the Super Six tournament such as Arthur Abraham, Mikkel Kessler and Carl Froch.
Calzaghe, now 37, finished his 15 year pro boxing career with wins over the 40ish Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. Those were some good fighters for Calzaghe to step in the ring with, to be sure, but wins probably weren’t the kind of finish that would quiet Calzaghe’s doubters and put a proper capstone to his career.
Had Calzaghe stuck around and fought in the Super Six tourney, boxing fans would have had a clearer picture whether Calzaghe was really as good as his unbeaten record suggested that he was. The problem now is that we’ll never know if Calzaghe was truly a great fighter or just someone who benefited by fighting during a weak era in the super middleweight division. Ward, Dirrell, and Taylor weren’t big factors in the division during the time that Calzaghe fought and have only recently rose to the top of the heap since Calzaghe pulled out.
However, we do have Calzaghe’s performance against Kessler to give us a glimpse of how he’d do against the unbeaten American Andre Ward. Calzaghe defeated Kessler by a 12 round decision by the scores of 117-111, 116-112 and 116-112, whereas Ward recently defeated Kessler by a 11th round technical decision by the scores of 97-93, 98-92 and 98-92.
Although Ward’s final judge’s scores were only slightly better than Calzaghe’s, Ward seemed to dominate Kessler in a much more impressive performance than Calzaghe did. Ward punished Calzaghe for 11 rounds, tagging him with hard lefts and rights and rarely getting hit by him. The fight was totally one-sided and there was never a point in which Kessler was competitive with the young Ward.
While some of Calzaghe’s fans say that he was getting up there in age at the time that he fought Kessler and that he was 35, the fact still remains that Ward arguably looked better against Kessler did compared to Calzaghe. At 35, I think Calzaghe was still fighting at the top of his game. If there was any slippage, I couldn’t see it with my eyes. Calzaghe looked to be the same fighter he was earlier in his prime, maybe even better because of his better knowledge of the sport.
Below I give my estimate of how Calzaghe would so if he were to have stuck around and fought in the Super Six tournament:
Carl Froch – I see Calzaghe as being much too fast for Froch, and way too good on the inside for Froch to try and get an edge by playing rough at close range. Calzaghe would likely batter and out-slick Froch on the outside, making him miss much like Dirrell did in their October 17th fight. On the outside, Froch would have problems with Calzaghe’s speed, and at close range, Calzaghe would likely overwhelm Froch with fast combinations.
Prediction: Calzaghe by 10th round stoppage
Jermain Taylor – If this fight had taken place before Taylor’s recent 12th round TKO loss to Abraham, I would consider this a pick em’ fight. However, I think Taylor’s chin might be compromised enough for Calzaghe to have a chance of stopping Taylor if he could load up with a big shot. It would come down to Calzaghe’s brittle hands. If they held together, then I think he’d beat Taylor. If not, then Taylor would get the edge.
Prediction: Calzaghe by 11th round stoppage
Mikkel Kessler I suspect that Calzaghe would still have Kessler’s number if they were to fight right now. Kessler looked slow, robotic and mechanical with his movements in his loss to Ward on November 21st. Calzaghe, unless he’s slowed down since retiring last year would probably be still too good for Kessler. All Calzaghe would have to do is throw a lot of punches, stay in close and he’d have Kessler out of his comfort zone. It would be a tough fight for Calzaghe, as he’d take a lot of shots in the fight like he did last time, but I think he’d win it.
Prediction: Calzaghe by 12 round decision.
Arthur Abraham – Abraham would be too slow and limited to beat Calzaghe. Abraham fights hard only in the last 30 seconds of every round, and that just wouldn’t get the job done against Calzaghe. Abraham would find himself getting badly outworked and no matter how much he covers up and tries to blocks shots with his gloves, Abraham wouldn’t be able to block all the incoming punches from Calzaghe. At the same time, Abraham’s shots wouldn’t have the desired effect on Calzaghe and he’d take them without going down.
Prediction: Calzaghe by lopsided 12 round decision.
Andre Dirrell – Here is where Calzaghe would run into problems. Dirrell would likely have too much hand speed, and be too hard to hit with his excellent defensive ability. Dirrell, the bigger fighter, would pour in hard left hands that would cause Calzaghe problems. Calzaghe would try to get close enough to overwhelm Dirrell with punches, but the American wouldn’t go along with his plans by staying on the move and tagging Calzaghe with hard shots with both hands.
Prediction: Dirrell by 12 round decision.
Andre Ward – Calzaghe would really have a lot of troubles with Ward, simply because of Ward’s speed, power and movement. Ward would be a tremendous leap up in competition for Calzaghe and he’d be huge problems for him because of his speed. I don’t see this fight being even slightly close. Ward would likely beat on Calzaghe all night long and have an easy time winning a decision. I see Calzaghe taking more punishment in this fight than Kessler did in his loss to Ward. It wouldn’t be pretty sight.
Prediction: Ward by lopsided 12 round decision.
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